


The Morning (Evening?) After

by endrega_Turtlesse



Series: Amnesiac Bucky Barnes 'Verse [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable Tony Stark, Amnesia, Amnesiac Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Gets a Hug, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Crack and Angst, Hurt Bucky Barnes, I fought hard, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-World War II Bucky Barnes, Tony Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Has A Heart, and it messed with his head, but it fought harder, more angst than crack to be honest, mostly - Freeform, that's what sleep deprivation does kids, the boys are functional human beings with emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22478746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endrega_Turtlesse/pseuds/endrega_Turtlesse
Summary: Bucky promised a dinner, after all...
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Amnesiac Bucky Barnes 'Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1617277
Comments: 5
Kudos: 190
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	The Morning (Evening?) After

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly this won't make much sense if you don't read the first fic. It's short, though :)
> 
> Name of piece: The Morning (Evening?) After  
> Name of participant: endrega23  
> Card number: 3097  
> Square number and prompt: B2: Stark Tower (picture prompt)  
> Rating: Teen and Up Audiences  
> Pairing: Tony Stark / James "Bucky" Barnes  
> Warnings: no archive warnings apply  
> Summary: Bucky promised a dinner, after all...

Tony woke slowly, feeling groggy. Huh, that’s a new. It’s been some time since he’s slept for long enough to have that. Okay, to be honest, it’s been some time since he’s slept.

He groaned low and turned onto his back, scrubbing his face with a hand.

“Okay, Tony, you can do this” he muttered, eyes still closed. Did he go on a bender?

No, he wasn’t hung-over. Okay, what then… Oh, no. Oh, no, no.

Tony couldn’t have stopped a second groan if he wanted to. Did he seriously tell Barnes he was sexy? Okay, no, tell Bucky that he was sexy. Tony was pretty sure he didn’t dream up Bucky telling him to call him that. That would be super-embarrassing. Even more so than telling a murderous super-soldier he was sexy.

No, wait.

Hasn’t it been established that Bucky doesn’t hate him?

“JARVIS? Does Bucky hate me?”

Tony could swear he didn’t program the exasperation into JARVIS’ voice. “Even though I resent being relegated to answering questions worthy of a high-schooler, Sergeant Barnes told you last night that he, in fact, does not.”

Tony gasped, eyes flying open. “Teenager?! I’ll have you know I had much better things to do as a teenager! _I_ resent _your_ remarks” he sniffed.

“As I am sure you do, sir.”

Ah, the snarkiness. That hasn’t been programmed either.

All right, no matter. So, Bucky is probably not murderous. Just superso—Wait. WAIT.

“Okay, more important. Did I imagine Bucky reverting to his programming mid-battle, Natasha hitting him on the head real hard, and him waking up thinking it was the forties?”

“I believe she prefers the term, ‘cognitive recalibration’. Otherwise, spot on as always, sir.”

“Ughh” Tony covered his face again. “I’d say I can’t believe my life, but, that would be a hard sell, wouldn’t it.”

“It would seem so, sir.”

“Okay, hit me, Jay. Anything else that happened.”

“I believe Sergeant Barnes is cooking you dinner tonight.”

Tony shot upright. “Wait, what?” Because, what?

“Shall I play the tape, sir?”

Tony shoved a hand through his hair. “Might as well.”

_– “Come on, up you go” Barnes got an arm under his shoulders. “Let’s get you to bed.”_

_“Buy me dinner first”_ Tony heard himself quip back _. “And we’re not even on first-name basis.”_

_Barnes laughed quietly. “We can change the second one pretty easily. Hi, Tony, I’m Bucky. As for the second one, how about I up it and make you dinner when you wake up, doll?” –_

“Okay, stop, pause, Jay, because this is burning my brain out.” Tony would have liked to claim that he suddenly remembered, because, come on, he remembered Bucky telling him to call him that, but. He did not. He had a good excuse at least, sleep deprivation does a number on a brain – he knows, Pepper forced him to read up on it in their short try at a relationship –, but the fact that it was completely self-inflicted cancels that out. Maybe. He’d have to try it on Pepper sometime.

“Where’s Bucky now?” Tony could at least speak to him. Ha, take that, everyone who said he avoided his problems. He only does that sometimes. When he doesn’t hope a bit maybe perhaps potentially that the confrontation in question could lead to doing the horizontal tango with a certain very sexy, not murderous, biologically-still-supersoldier. Or, you know, a whole relationship, but Tony wasn’t jinxing it.

“The sergeant is in the communal kitchen, preparing dinner. Shall I alert him of your arrival?”

“Sure, why not” Tony waved, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. Ugh, why did he always have to be so sore after sleeping this long. And he still felt tired. Betrayal, as far as he was concerned.

He shuffled off towards the elevator, barely remembering to put pants on. Now that the initial panic over yesterday’s (and the day before’s) passed, his eyes were closing again. He fought to keep them open, just enough so that he wouldn’t land on the floor face-first. Wouldn’t that be a perfect way to greet Bucky. Just his luck that that was totally his style. But no. Today, he’d be sleek and suave. Or awake, at least.

The elevator pinged open and he prepared a smile and a nice and sexy hello for Bucky, but then the best, most tantalizing scent reached his nose, and his greeting turned into, “Ooh, coffee!” Okay, so not suave. He still had awake. But more importantly, “Coffee!” he shuffled into the kitchen, looking around for the source of it. Then his eyes ran into Bucky, who was looking unreasonably delicious, and also had a mug of coffee in his hands.

“Give me, give me, give me!” Tony made grabby hands at it, and Bucky handed it over! Best. Supersoldier. Ever. He might have also looked amused, but Tony couldn’t care less. He was having a moment here! With coffee. With a sigh, he sipped at the coffee, his eyes closing without unconsciously. There, that was better. Hmm. Coffee.

\--------

Bucky could admit that he was somewhat aroused, watching Tony have mental sex with coffee. He had looked unreasonably cute for someone over forty when he shuffled in, eyes half closed, looking entirely asleep. Really, that level of cute could be weaponized, it was so effective. Bucky didn’t want to give Tony his coffee, he’d been drinking it! But there comes Tony, shuffling in all sleep-rumpled and adorable, with a bedhead that shouldn’t pull off sexy and cute at the same time, making grabby hands at Bucky’s coffee, and what does Bucky do? Hand it over. Like a giant pushover. To top it all off, Tony had started making those, those, noises! Moaning over a cup of coffee! How was Bucky supposed to function now? Cute and sexy, what the hell. Should be illegal.

Bucky took a deep breath, pushed it out, and turned back towards the stove. He will not molest someone half-asleep, and if he kept looking at Tony, that was what would happen. Besides, dinner would get burnt, and he promised.

It took a couple of minutes for Tony to rouse, then Bucky could hear him step closer and hover awkwardly. Honestly, Bucky wasn’t quite sure what to do with the situation either. Back in the day (and God, wasn’t that hard to think, it felt yesterday) he couldn’t really wine and dine a man, and even with the gals, it never lasted long enough to get to the ‘make them dinner’ stage. He wasn’t even sure why he’d offered it to Tony, except maybe that Tony had looked so lost and adorable and sure that Bucky hated him that he’d just blurted it out. And now here he was, trying to remember his ma’s perfect mashed potato recipe, because he didn’t learn it while he could and now couldn’t ever ask her again.

He didn’t even realize he was gripping the counter until it cracked under his left hand. “Fuck” he muttered, quickly stepping back.

“Bucky?” Tony’s voice was tentative, and great, now Bucky’s scared him, too.

“Sorry” Bucky turned, embarrassed when his voice cracked. “It’s just, I’m tryin to get this right, like my ma used ta, but I couldn’t be bothered to learn it while I could cause she’s always be there, and now-” Bucky couldn’t force down a sob and he turned to hide it, but Tony’s voice went soft.

“Oh, Bucky.”

Bucky stiffened when arms enveloped him, but he couldn’t help but melt into the hug. After a moment, he turned in Tony’s arms and hid his face in Tony’s neck.

“Shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you” Tony murmured, and Bucky broke. Large, ugly sobs broke free from his chest, and for the first time in a long while, he cried.

He cried for his ma, and for his sisters, yeah, but he also cried for the Commandos, because they were gone, too. He cried a bit for Steve, too, because he’d been alone for too long in this new century, and selfishly he cried for the Steve he knew in the forties. The small, asthmatic one, and the big, beefy one, because neither of them was the Steve in this future. They would get along, they always did, but it was one more change in a drastically different world.

And after all that, he finally cried for himself. For how he found himself in the future with nothing but Steve to anchor him, lost, drifting in time. But he cried for growing up too quick, for having to enlist to support himself, his family and Steve. He never cried after his dad’s funeral, but now he cried for the boy who’d been thrust into earning a living instead of playing with the others. He cried for the hungry nights, the long shifts, the scary and unknown. He couldn’t cry then, but now he had someone to hold him and tell him it was gonna be okay. It might not, but then again, it might.

When his tears started to subside, it was because while he might have lost almost everyone he’d ever known, but from what they’d told him, and from what he could already see, he’s found other people, too. A sniper-buddy to snark with. Someone to share the quiet, with a cup a’ tea, like his gran used to. A scary, scary sparring partner. A sarcastic asshole who likes him anyway. A new Steve to get to know and annoy. And, maybe, someone who could be more. Because yes, this was a loss so profound he would be scrabbling to process it for years to come, but, it could be a beginning, if he worked for it. The will was definitely there; Tony hadn’t stopped scratching his head since he started crying.

Bucky sniffed and raised his head, quickly turning away to scrub away the tears.

“Better?” Tony asked softly.

Bucky nodded tersely.

“Yeah” he croaked out. “Sorry.”

“What for? You know, it’s okay not to be okay. At least, that’s what Pep tells me. God knows I’m not the better at acting it but pay it forward and all that crap.”

Bucky laughed shakily. It wasn’t really funny, but it felt that way.

“See? Better already. I knew I could make you laugh.”

Bucky shook his head, smiling softly, when his eyes widened.

“Shit, the dinner!”

They both turned to the stove. “Fuck” Bucky muttered. The mashed potato was as good as gone. It was a rather ugly brown, the edges black. Bucky quickly turned off the stove but knew it was for nothing. Well, at least the house won’t burn down. That was something.

“Sorry, doll” Bucky winced. “I know I promised dinner, but it don’t seem like we’re getting any.”

“And it didn’t even burn for fun reasons” Tony lamented. It took a moment for Bucky, but then he sputtered, feeling his face flame.

“I didn’t know you’re so innocent!” Tony laughed delightedly.

“Am not! I just didn’t expect you to- This was supposed to be the first date!”

“Ooh, you’re just a traditionalist, are you?” Tony cooed, making Bucky narrow his eyes. Oh, no, this was not to stand. Tony was the cute one, not him.

“Cut it out, mister” he threatened. “Three days ago, I was in the forties. Damn right I’m a traditionalist.”

Tony tilted his head to the side, considering. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. How about you clean up, I order take-out, we have our dinner, and you can cook for me next time?”

Bucky smirked. “Next time, huh? I’ll take that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Do you want me to make this a longer series? I feel like there are other stories to tell from this verse, if there's interest.  
> Also, if you have anything you'd want to see, feel free to give a prompt, I'll do my best :)
> 
> Please, please comment if you liked it, I thrive on comments even if I don't manage to answer <3


End file.
